Drought Dries Up Water Resources

A Year's Worth Of Rainfall Behind, The District Is Close To Declaring A Serious Shortage And Restricting Water Use.

December 10, 2000|By Ramsey Campbell of The Sentinel Staff

St. Johns River Water Management District officials say they may officially declare a water shortage in the next few weeks and begin imposing water restrictions in Lake, Marion, Volusia, Seminole and Orange counties.

Administrators of the agency said they will recommend the district board take action if it seems likely the area will not have enough water to meet anticipated demand or that water resources will suffer from serious harm.

"We are in a serious drought," said Hal Wilkening, director of the water management district's Department of Resource Management.

"Rainfall deficits like we have in the Central Florida area typically are only seen once in every 100 to 200 years."

The drought has been most severe in the central portion of the 19-county district, and Lake County has been the hardest hit.

Since January, rainfall in Central Florida has been between 15 and 25 inches below normal. Typically, this area gets about 52 inches of rainfall in a year.

After the past three years, Lake County is short nearly a full year's worth of rain, and the situation is especially critical in south Lake County, where lakes are disappearing.

Although Central Florida is in the midst of a drought, the least amount of rain has fallen in the Green Swamp, just east of Tampa.

Although that area is outside the St. Johns district, it feeds the Clermont Chain of Lakes in south Lake County. The result is that the Clermont Chain is drying up.

Longtime south Lake County residents say the lakes are lower than they have seen them, and many piers and boathouses are standing far from water as the shorelines have receded.

The lack of rainfall to replenish the lakes has been compounded by a dramatic increase in the amount of drinking water taken from Florida's natural underwater reservoir, the Floridan aquifer. The aquifer has dropped as much as 10 feet in parts of Lake County. Local well drillers report they have been working overtime all year, sinking new and deeper wells for residents whose water systems have failed because of the dry conditions.

And it is going to get worse.

Every day more than 100 million gallons of drinking water is pumped out of the ground in Lake County alone. That number is expected to double in the next 20 years. Since May, the St. Johns district has approved 32 more permits that will suck up an extra 2.9 billion gallons of water from the aquifer annually.

Local conservationists say they are baffled by the water management district's action, and Lake County Water Authority officials have talked about stepping in to try to halt the withdrawals and encourage conservation. The water management district's response to the drought has been to prohibit outdoor watering from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and recommend residents water their lawns only two days a week.

As recently as last month, St. Johns officials said they foresaw no serious water problems, although other water management districts around the state have imposed tighter water-use restrictions.

But now St. Johns officials said they are growing concerned.

"By spring, we could see record low groundwater levels at some locations," Wilkening said.

"Last summer more than 20 sinkholes developed in the Central Florida area, and drop pipes and upgraded pumps had to be added to private wells.

"We anticipate even lower groundwater levels for the spring of 2001."

Normally the winter months have the lowest rainfall of any season in Florida, and most experts don't anticipate relief from the drought until spring at the earliest.